Something shocking happened to my cat - not traumatic to read but can you shed light?

[hereidrawtheline]

Yesterday my boy cat Yang had been out for about 30 mins or so. DH walked into the kitchen and he was sat there on the floor with blood pouring out of his eyes (the sockets) and nose. To say we were shocked is putting it mildly.

Yang is 9, he is white, with long very fluffy hair. He is sweetest cat ever, lovely natured, he is actually our constant puppy.

Anyway we rushed him to the out of hours emergency vets. Yang is insured and we have made so many claims for him while his sister Yin has never had a claim!

While sat there in the waiting room we noticed a small bloody little hole on the top of his head between his ears. Very precise and not a lot of mess around it.

Vet looked him over and was shocked at the injuries. He said the wound on the head was the cause of the bleeding in the eyes/nose, that he had a very severe impact there on the head that caused brain trauma. He was shocked he was hit hard enough to cause that bleeding but he still managed to be ok, his pupils were normal, he was walking and responding normal etc. Vet wanted to keep him in for observation til Monday but we wanted to take him home, Yang has been in hospital for a month before and it was so traumatic for him. We are 10 mins away from this vet and promised to take him back there if he deteriorated at all. The vet said he had a very very lucky escape.

He was given an anti-inflammatory injection and an anti-biotic and we have to take him back on Monday to our regular vet. He might need a skull xray but they couldnt have given him one yesterday anyway because of the head wound he couldnt have had anaesthetic.

The vet said it "could" be an air rifle but it didnt look like a classic air rifle wound. And it "could" be a car but didnt look like that either as his paws etc were fine so didnt looked as though he had been dragged. He said it "could" be a person, i.e. who hit him with a shovel or something but the wound is so small and precise. He really has no idea what could have caused it. I would pay good money to know.

We are keeping the cats in til Yang is fully recovered but even afterwards I am afraid to let him out again. He has had such bad luck and I am afraid one of these days he will get killed and not make it home and we will not know what happened to him or be able to help him. I am just so grateful he made it home yesterday with such a bad head wound.

UPDATE: Took Yang to the vets today and he had a skull xray. GOOD NEWS there is no pellet in his skull!!! BAD NEWS he was shot with an air rifle in the vets opinion, but at far range, hence the pellet bouncing off him and not lodging in his skull. She said his wound is so precise and the brain bleed it caused was so severe she just cant think of anything else that could cause that damage. She said I could tell the police it was her opinion.

So I am obviously incredibly grateful he is going to live and be ok!!! DH and I had prepared ourselves to hear bad news. But I am now gutted and furious almost properly for the first time that one of my neighbours has shot my cat. He is getting on and a real homebody and never goes more than 1 or 2 gardens away from my garden and is never out more than 20 mins usually. And always comes when you call him immediately. So always in ear shot. So even if it was far range it still was relatively close. And I live in a really quiet village, I am the last house on a very quiet cul de sac - I just cant believe it.

Phoned the police - they have updated the report but said unless there is a lead there is nothing more they can do. I phoned the RSPCA and reported it to them and they are taking it very seriously, have filed a report, are probably going to send someone round here to investigate themselves etc. They said it is illegal for weapons to be operated in this way, full stop. And it is a miracle, we have been told by 2 vets now, that he is alive. The RSPCA woman was amazed as well he was injured badly enough to bleed through the eyes/nose like that and she was suitably furious!

DH and I have decided to mailshot our neighbours.

We are not gong to put our address, names or phone number but will put DH's mobile number, the police incident number, police phone number, and RSPCA phone number as they now have a report on it too.

We are going to say something like this (roughly, I havent actually written it yet)

Our beloved family cat was shot at far range by an air rifle on Saturday, sometime around 2:00 pm. We found him in our kitchen with blood pouring from his eyes and nose and a hole on top of his head - he had only been out of the house a short amount of time. He has suffered a severe brain trauma and we have been told it is something of a miracle he is still alive.

We are as a family very upset and angry that someone who lives near to us has behaved in such a reprehensible way and have filed a police report - number 681 - RSPCA blah blah blah then I shall put contact info and we are thinking saying something like, "small reward available for information that leads to firm police lead?" we dont really want to put an amount but were thinking £25 or £50. £25 would be better! I just spent £270 on vets bills, some but not all I will get back on insurance.

What do you think? I will work on it and word it much better than this but just wanted to give you the rough idea. Also check out my profile I am just on the point now after posting of putting some pics of Yang. One is his head wound which actually doesnt look too bad in the pic - it was taken a couple of hours ago so no blood its just a little hole. The other is a pic of him looking cute under the xmas tree.

I should say "just" a little hole.

That seems fine to me.

Probably best not to include the bit I personally would be tempted to add about '...and when we find who it is we will rip his nadgers off and use them as ping pong balls'

Good idea, I think. Even if you don't get information as such, it may prompt a parent to confiscate the air rifle from the culprit, or even make the person who did it realise the awful consequences of their actions.

So glad he has got off relatively lightly - I was really worried what the news from the vet would be.

Would it be worth talking to Cats Protection too, in case they have any useful advice for dealing with all of this?

I would add to your flyer that the person who did it is a lower life form than pus, but that is probably an insult to pus.

Keep us posted, please.

yes I am hoping it might tell a parent who may not know what their shitdementeddevilspawn child has done to take the bloody weapon away, even if nothing else.

Do you think if I just say "small reward offered for information leading to firm police lead" - and if that happens the reward is £25 - is that fair enough?

someone at DH's work said it could also be a cantankerous old man who doesnt want cats in his garden. So it might not be the young. Or old. Just the wankers.

My cat was shot by an air rifle when she was a year old. Thankfully she got hit on the nose which is supposed to be quite hard? So she didn't incur any lasting damage but still traumatic for ME never mind the cat!! lol

But with the air rifle the bullet was still in her nose? So...hmm...

I'm glad Yang is OK though

If you don't want your neighbours to know it is you, send yourself one too.

Poor cat.

I would appeal to their better nature and not put a reward at all, just emphasise that Yang's a gentle, homeloving, very much doted on pet who's suffered horrendous injuries.

If you're hoping to get a police lead from this, a small reward's not much of an incentive and would actually put me off replying.

really wabbit? it would put you off? why is that, that is interesting! I certainly wont put it on there if it is unnecessary or would do more harm than good I am just desperate for some information. Not being funny either but the street behind my house is full of huge, 5, 6 bedroom detached houses with massive long gardens, private drives etc, so the money probably wouldnt matter to them anyway. I am not loaded by the way I live in a 2 bedroom bungalow but in a nice area. I just happen to back on to a very expensive road.

I wasnt going to post them all I was going to just drop them in letterboxes myself walking around. Do you think that is ok? Only my neighbours immediate to me would recognise me and know which house I belonged to and I can safely say it is none of them as I know them.

Only flaw I can think of is that, if it was a youth, then he/she (must try not to be sexist about this!) could pick up the leaflet and dispose of it before parents get to see it.

DH's opinion is that the sort of youth who does this has uninterested parents anyway, but I think that may be quite a broad and sweeping statemtn. Where we live (very rural) I know lots of seemingly well brought up youths who will take pot shots at pigeons etc.

And yes, it could be a cantakerous old man (or woman).

Does this help or did I just ramble? have also seen these incidents in local papers but would you want to go 'public' as it were?

Sorry, having bit of a humdinger of a night with dd and ds - one's mega moody the other's frightened of monsters in his bedroom! he's on the sofa asleep now!

I would feel less inclined to get in touch because it sounds like you only want absolutely conclusive information which leads to an arrest.

Say I was a neighbour of x who I've seen target practicing, and whilst doing so, taking pot shots at pigeons/birds in his/her garden over the last month - If it was just an appeal for info and I thought there was a possibility that x may have been the culprit, I might well text or phone the information I have - if there was a reward, I might feel it too inconclusive for you to be interested.

again, sorry to keep you waiting for a reply

feel so and for your lovely cat

sparklygathkats cat was shot at her old house. there hasbeen a spate of shootings of cvats in that area. he also survived to tel lthe tale, but its not nice at all. makes me angry that people can do this.

i adore cats, but cant have one as dd's are allergic to them.

yang is gorgeous.

oh sgk contacted local paper about it

How's Yang today?

You may want to show him this

here

Ooops - try again:

here

how awful and shocking for you hereidrawtheline.
I hope Yang is making a good recovery.

Seriously, though, hope he's improving and that you get some progress with finding the culprit.

So glad Yang is going to be OK - how awful for you all.

In terms of the mail shot:

'We are as a family very upset and angry that someone who lives near to us has behaved in such a reprehensible way and have filed a police report' -

I would be inclined to rethink this bit - remember not everyone is a cat lover. I would suggest something along the lines of:

We are understandably devastated by this, and would be grateful for any information as to who may have done this.

If it's any consolation, my mum and dad's cat had a significant head injury caused by being hit by a car and was bleeding from her nose and ear - the vet was amazed she hadn't been killed. She was kept in for observation overnight and after a few weeks, made a complete recovery.

Hope yours does too.

glad hes feeling better and hope you catch who did it!

When i was younger our cat came home with one of his back legs shattered, only held on by a piece of skin really, mum and dad spent a fortune at the vets and he ended up with metal pins and wire in his leg, which ended up a bit shorter and with no ankle joint, the lad next door later told us his dad had "booted it a good one, almost over the fence" because he was in his garden.

His leg sometimes bled as the wire would poke out now and again and it always looked a bit scabby, looking back it was like he was allergic to the metal?

About a year later he was sunning himself in the front garden when a lad walked past with two dogs, they must have got a sniff of the blood as they chased him into the back garden with the lad following, i went out the back to find the lad standing back watching while his dogs mauled our cat, i started screaming and hitting him and dragged the dogs off the cat (looking back this was possibly a bit not clever on my part as they were quite ferocious and snarly!)called police who came out and were sympathetic but said as it was a cat there was nothing they could do.

another trip to the vet and cat subsequently became a 3 legged cat and lived many more years, actually i met one of the policemen many years later and he remembered me and was still apologetic about it which was nice

Oh they really do have nine lives ... your poor cat glitteryb6

Hi all! I just wanted to say hi and thanks for your continued good thoughts for Yangyboy. They must be working because he is doing really well. Absolutely dying to go outside but we are not letting them til at least several days after we have mailshotted and we havent had a chance yet as we have all been ill with cold and been having a lot of problems with DS (SN).

glittery how horrible about your poor cat!

Yangle is doing well. His hole is now officially a scab although last night I accidentally pulled some of it off while I was stroking him, he flinched and I felt awful. Really truly awful.

Actually last night or the night before I heard a series of bangs outside and realised I hear them all the time and have often wondered what they were. Now they could be nothing to do with it but I did wonder if it was an air gun.

I will keep you posted about any info we get though!

bella, nice link! someone clearly getting their own back!

So glad he's doing well.

Best of luck with everything else you have going on too x